Farmers and agribusinesses in the Hall County community were recognized for their hard work at the 2018 Ag Awards breakfast Tuesday morning.
Elton Maddox, Mike Haynes and the late JK Crumley were inducted into the Agriculture Hall of Fame. Other awards included the Farmer or the Year award, which was presented to brothers Jacob and Joab Bowen, whose family poultry farm produces up to 22 million pounds of antibiotic-free chicken a year; CEO Mark Sosebee accepted the Outstanding Agribusiness award for his company, Gold Creek Foods, which operates four poultry processing facilities in the area and employing 12,000 team members; and the Hall County Farm Bureau was recognized as a Friend of Agriculture.
"It's a great honor to receive any award but this is special because it's in my own home community, it's in my own home area and it's really about agriculture and farming in Hall County and around Hall County, it's very special to be honored by the people that you've tried to serve for many years," said Maddox, Executive Chairman of Wayne Farms. "They're the one who make a difference in agriculture."
Receiving an award isn't the end for those dedicated to Hall County agribusiness. The big picture gets bigger for Gold Creek Foods CEO Sosebee, who said it was an honor for his company to be recognized as Outstanding Agribusiness and they have even bigger plans in the works.
"Our goal is to be the biggest of the smallest - which is actually an oxymoron - but there is a space in our industry for a company like ours to exist. We basically serve the majors and help them grow their business and we've been successful," said Sosebee. "We're planning on possibly adding another facility here in Hall County within the next year... it's a great economy right now, so I think everyone in the agricultural sector is doing well. We'll just see what develops, maybe an acquisition is in the future."
The breakfast and award recognition was hosted by the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce and UGA Extension. The breakfast was sponsored by Jackson EMC, and a host of other organizations also sponsored the event.
